FC Barcelona have sold a 25% stake in their “Barca Studios” to Socios for €100 million in order to register their summer signings.
New arrivals Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, and Jules Kounde cost the club upwards of €150m while Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie both arrived on free transfers.
The Catalan club was unable to register new players due to La Liga’s strict spending caps with the club having already accrued debts equalling over a billion euros.
Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta confirmed the news with the club later making a formal announcement.
“FC Barcelona announces the sale of 24.5% of Barça Studios to the company Socios.com for €100m to accelerate the club’s audiovisual, blockchain, NFT, and Web.3 strategy.
“The sale has been made in accordance with the authorization of the general assembly of FC Barcelona members held last Oct. 23.”
Barcleona had earlier sold 25% of their domestic television rights to investment fund Sixth Street for around €600m and now hope that the deal with Socios.com will ease their financial problems even more.
Barca Studios is a subsidiary of the Catalan club that produces in-house and external television content, along with other productions.
Along with selling shares of the club, Laporta is hoping to generate some revenue by getting rid of players that are not part of Xavi’s plans.
The club is working on finding ways to get Neto, Riqui Puig, Samuel Umtiti, and Martin Braithwaite off the wage bill while also fielding offers for Miralem Pjanic, Sergino Dest, Memphis Depay and Frenkie de Jong, among others.
Barca’s spending and the sale of stakes in television rights and Barca Studios comes just a year after they were unable to keep Lionel Messi. In a cruel twist of fate, Messi also has a personal deal with Socio.com.
